San Francisco may be held up on a global pedestal as a friendly, supportive place for gays and lesbians, but the city is at risk of abandoning the men and women who built that structure and who are now heading into old age, according to a report released Tuesday.

The city is home to roughly 60,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people older than 60, and that number is expected to rise dramatically in 10 to 15 years, say members of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force, which put together the report.

Those seniors face many of the same aging issues that affect their straight peers, such as finding and keeping affordable housing, living on a tight budget, and accessing health care and other supportive services.

But their needs are different in important ways that are just now being identified, according to the task force, which listed in the report more than a dozen ways that senior services can be improved for people in the LGBT community.

"When you look at the big rainbow flag on Market, at Harvey Milk Plaza and all the dynamic things that the LGBT community is known for, this is the generation that made that happen," said Larry Saxxon, a task force member. "Unless San Francisco does something, this is going to be a community that becomes much more at risk and will probably vanish for the most part."

Identifying issues

As part of the report, the task force identified areas of concern particular to LGBT seniors and gaps in their care. Gay and lesbian adults often lack basic resources - like a spouse or biological family - that provide a foundation of support for straight people as they get older. Also, many of them are HIV-positive or are dealing with the long-term effects of alcohol or drug addiction, which are more common among people in the LGBT community.

At the same time, gays and lesbians may be reluctant to use services like in-home care or seek financial or legal aid because of fears of discrimination, the task force found.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which created the task force two years ago, is under no obligation to follow through on the recommendations made by the group. But task force Chairman Bill Ambrunn said they're encouraging the creation of a new committee to follow up on the report and that he believes some of the recommendations will be implemented within a year or so.

Among the suggestions in the 200-plus-page report are improving data collection on gender identity and sexual orientation among people who use senior services offered by city-supported agencies.

The report also recommends that agencies that get city money for senior services be required to provide "cultural competency" training for staff members to make them more sensitive to the needs of LGBT clients.

San Francisco has one nonprofit agency - called Openhouse - specifically focused on gay seniors. But task force members noted that as the LGBT senior population grows, more agencies are going to have to provide services, and those groups will need training to help them be sympathetic to and aware of the needs specific to gays and lesbians.

Sensing discrimination

The suggestions came after 18 months of study by the task force and were based largely on previous reports and surveys of LGBT seniors. Studies found that LGBT seniors were more than twice as likely as straight men and women to live alone, and only about 15 percent had children. In one survey, a quarter of LGBT seniors said they had felt discriminated against while seeking public services in San Francisco.

For years, the needs of aging LGBT adults have been largely ignored, and not without reason. During the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the HIV epidemic overwhelmed the gay community and required its undivided attention.

More recently, social issues such as same-sex marriage and antidiscrimination efforts have taken center stage. But Ambrunn said it's time for the LGBT community to recognize that the men and women who led the earliest efforts of gay rights in the Untied States now need the support of the next generations.

"Most of our recommendations are aimed at what the government can and should be doing for seniors," Ambrunn said. "But a big part of what we're saying is that the community itself has to get involved and identify this as a priority."

Vulnerable groups

Groups that have traditionally been underrepresented even within the LGBT community - such as transgender people and ethnic minorities - are especially in need of support, task force members said.

"Will I outlive my money? Will I have any community? Will I still have my marbles and be able to take care of myself?" said Bertie Brouhard, 67, a transgender woman who participated in a focus group on LGBT issues that was part of the task force report. "Those are the entry-level issues that all old people have. But old trans people are rather invisible. We just don't fit."